


Having an Adventure

by charliechick117



Category: The Hobbit (2012)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-18
Updated: 2013-02-28
Packaged: 2017-11-29 16:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/689180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charliechick117/pseuds/charliechick117
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fili and Kili spend a rare day off out in the forest.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was a warm, almost hot, summer day, and Fili wanted nothing more than to spend it lounging around in his bedroom.  It was one of those rare days when Dearest Uncle Thorin let Fili and Kili have a day off.  Mostly because Dearest Uncle Thorin needed a day away from his nephews.  Fili smirked as the sunlight streamed through his window.  Dearest Uncle Thorin had issues with Kili most of the time.

Kili, who was jumping onto Fili's bed.

"FIIILIIII!"

"No," Fili rolled over and pulled his blankets over his head.  "Go away."

"Oh, come on!" Kili yanked the blankets off Fili's head.  "You promised!"

"I did no such thing!" Fili sat up.

"Yes you did!" Kili argued, crossing his arms.  "You said that the next day we had off, you and I could go out and spend time in the wild."

"I don't remember this conversation," Fili shook his head.

"It doesn't matter," Kili stuck out his tongue.  "We're going.  You can either get dressed or we'll do it with you in your bed clothes."

"Fine, fine," Fili tossed his feet over the edge of his bed.  "You win, let's go."

Within a few minutes, the brothers were dressed, bags of supplies over their back, and weapons strapped to their bodies.  They kissed their mother goodbye, promising to be back the next morning.  Then there was nothing left but the wild forest and Kili's bright smile.

"Let's have an adventure," Kili laughed, grabbing Fili's hand and pulling him along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was writing this during a movie and the movie ended before I could get anywhere. So it's going to be a multi-chaptered fic about Fili and Kili in the woods.


	2. Chapter 2

Kili had been looking forward to this day for weeks.  Thorin didn't let them have days off.  He only talked about Erebor and dragons and their birth right and that they needed to "act like the princes they were" but Kili was barely 60.  Erebor was nothing but a story, the dragon nothing but a legend, their birth right was little more than a glimmer in the distant future and Fili was the heir, not Kili.

They could have gone and spent their day in the marketplace, flirting with curious human girls and haggling with merchants, but Kili grew tired of that years ago.  The flirting left something hard in his stomach and haggling usually led to a chase and a scolding from their mother.

And Kili could just imagine the look on Thorin's face when he found out his nephews had spent their free day out in the woods, hunting and scavenging and being good, adult dwarves who could fend for themselves in the wild.

Still, Kili smiled to himself as they crossed a river, all that was still a front for Kili's true and honest reason for suggesting a day in the woods.

He needed to be with his brother.

Fili, the Heir of Erebor as Thorin says, had duties that he needed to attend to.  Fili had to learn politics and memorize the family tree.  Fili had to be good at fighting and learn how to lead and direct armies.  Fili needed to always look presentable and kingly.  Fili, five years Kili's senior, was still a child.  Fili needed the time to act like it.  Well, Kili could give Fili plenty of opportunities for that.

"Do you know where you're going?" Fili shouted as Kili meandered through the trees.

"Not a clue," Kili threw a saucy wink over his shoulder.

"Do you plan for us to get lost?" Fili caught up to his brother, a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll find our way back," Kili shrugged.  "Unlike Uncle, we were born with a sense of direction."

Fili laughed.  "Don't let him hear you say that."

"Then it's a good thing he's not here," Kili grinned.

Fili laughed again and took the lead.  Kili couldn't help but smile his stomach flipped.  He'd heard the girls in the market compare Fili to the sunlight, but that was a pale comparison.  Fili's brightness did not set like the sun.  It could not be blocked by clouds.  Some of the merchants said Fili was spun gold, yet Kili did not agree with that either.  Gold was a soft metal that formed and bent to any whim.  Fili was as strong as the bones of the earth.  He was as immovable as the mountains.  When Kili was admiring the various gemstones Balin had brought for a lesson, he found Fili.

Citrine.  A gem that sparkled like golden sunlight, that was hard and solid and unwavering.  It was supposed to keep evil thoughts at bay.  It symbolized strength and hope.  It represents power and healing.  It was Fili.

"Hey!" Fili shouted from the top of a hill.  "Stop dawdling and get up here!  I think I found a place to camp!"

Kili ran up the hill side and looked to where Fili was gesturing.

Down the slope was a small clearing.  A makeshift firepit was in the center and a small stream bubbled by.  Kilie put his hand on Fili's shoulder and smiled.

"It looks perfect."

Fili, with his braids coming loose and a smudge of dirt on his cheek, smiled back.

He looked perfect too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters because gemstones apparently speak to me.

Kili was hunting for something to eat, though why he didn't think to bring food is beyond Fili.  He, however, stayed at their makeshift camp.  Kili didn't trust him hunting, not since the last time when they both almost ended up trampled by a stampede.

Fili had already gathered enough wood to last the night, started a small fire, pitched their little tent, and marked the trees with a blue scarf.  It was something they had learned years ago, when Thorin first took them out into the wild.  He and Kili had wandered off, gotten lost, and couldn't find their way back to camp.  Thorin had tied a blue scarf on every third three surrounding their camp, going twenty feet out.  It was their signal, their sign.  Fili currently was sitting on a rock, whittling a spit and whistling a nonsensical tune.

Kili came through the trees, carrying two rabbits and looking extremely proud of himself.

"Is that all you got?" Fili teased.

"Why, does your delicate figure need more to eat?" Kili threw back, setting his beloved bow on the ground and pulling out his knife.

"I'm only concerned that you might faint this afternoon," Fili jumped from the rock.  He poked the fire down until it was simmering coals and only a flicker of flame.  "Unless you had no more planned than lounging about?"

"I thought we could just walk about," Kili shrugged, throwing the rabbit pelts at Fili.  "I've never been to this part of the woods."

Fili set the pelts out to dry and brought a bowl over for Kili.  Nodding his thanks, Kili cleaned the rabbits and put them on the spit to roast, which left Fili to take the bowl and toss it into the stream and rinse it out.

They sat in comfortable silence as their lunch roasted.  Fili sat on his rock, a chunk of wood in hand, and started carving.  Kili spread himself out by the fire, occasionally rotating the spit.  Fili didn't know what he was carving, he wasn't even very good at it.  He never had time to learn or practice.  In another life, where he wasn't heir to a kingdom, Fili would have liked to have been a craftsman.

There was something special about making something with his bare hands that Fili desired, and not just weapons and armor like Thorin.  Fili liked making jewelry and toys.  He liked to make trinkets.  He had a special eye for the way silver and gold and mithril could be wrapped around gems.  Fili could take a gemstone, polish it, cut it, and set it into a piece of jewelry with almost no training.  He just watched and learned.

He'd been working on a piece for Kili in secret.  A circlet, worthy for a Prince of Erebor, made of silver and platinum.  It would shine like moonlight in Kili's dark hair.  Yet Fili had been unable find the right gemstone.  At first he chose diamonds, pure like starlight, but it lacked every bit of Kili's fiery spirit.  Then he went to sapphire, amethyst, and aquamarine.  He tried ruby, garnet, and topaz, yet none of them fit Kili.

What gem could possibly fit his little brother?  Kili was as bright as diamond, as cool as sapphire, as fiery as garnet.  He chose the bow as his weapon.  He tried his hardest to impress Thorin.  He was always there, with a smile or joke, to brighten Fili's day.

Fili found the gem quite by accident.  One stall in the market sells tokens of luck and healing.  Peridots, emeralds and pearls were on display, each of them talking of luck and fortune and health.  One gem was set to the side.  It was pale white, yet with each turn of the head, the colors on it shifted.  Reds, oranges, greens and blues were shot through it.  It was a fire opal and Fili wondered why he didn't choose it first.

Of all the gems Fili had seen, the opal was the last to cross his mind.  The opal represented hope, loyalty, happiness, innocence, and purity.  The fire opal, which looked as pale as the moon, shone with colors in the light.  Fili had set it into the circlet and knew that it was right.  When Thorin was king again, when Fili was truly the heir, then he would gift it to Kili.

"What are you making?" Kili appeared in front of him.

Fili looked down at the wood in his hands.  He hadn't been paying attention to the carving much, lost in his thoughts.  It was a small bird, mid-flight with beak wide open.

"A bird, I guess," Fili picked it up.

"Not your best work," Kili said, thrusing the rabbit at him.  "Here, eat.  If we're going to get lost, then we better do it on full stomachs."

Fili set the wooden bird on the rock and accepted the food eagerly.


	4. Chapter 4

After lunch, which Kili felt wasn't quite enough, he dragged Fili away from the camp.  There was a little pool down stream and he wanted to check it out.  Fili came along easily, laughing the entier way down.

"This had better be worth it," Fili said.

"Oh, it is," Kili assured him.  "Then there's this pathway that goes somewhere and we'll walk and then-"

"Calm down," Fili tugged on Kili's arm, slowing him to a halt.  "It's our day off, let's relax, okay?"

"No one really relaxes on days off," Kili countered.  "Those are the days when you're supposed to run wild and break everything in sight and come home with a broken arm and a bloody nose and Mother will fuss and make a big deal and then Uncle would let us have another day off because we'd be hurt and then we'd relax."

Fili gave Kili a funny look.  Kili, with a jolt, realized that he effectively ran his mouth.

"I uh, I mean," Kili blushed.

Fili laughed and gave Kili a friendly punch to the arm.

"Just no broken bones, alright?" Fili said.

Kili brightened.  "Alright."

The pool wasn't very deep and the water was freezing cold, but that didn't stop them from stripping down and jumping in.  They so rarely had days to just be with each other, brother to brother.  Just Fili and Kili having a good time.  Not two princes training to be kings.

"Do you ever think about it?" Kili asked as they sprawled on the grass to dry.

"Think about what?"

"Erebor."

"It's all Uncle talks about," Fili scoffed.  "Of course I think about it."

"No," Kili sat up, "I mean really think about it."

Fili opened one eye.  "Explain."

"Do you ever wonder what it's like?" Kili explained.  "Don't you ever wonder if that'll be home?  We've always been Fili and Kili of Ered Luin.  How can we change to being Fili and Kili, Princes of Erebor?  Don't you ever worry that it won't ever be the same?"

"You think too much, brother," Fili sighed, closing his eyes.  "It'll be the exact same.  Uncle's just waiting for the signs before he kicks the dragon out.  Then he'll be king and we'll still be us.  Though, if you're really worried, we could always find Uncle a wife."

"I doubt there's any dwarf in all of Middle Earth that would marry Uncle," Kili laughed, falling back into the grass.

Perhaps Fili was right.  Things in Erebor couldn't be different from Ered Luin.  They would still be Fili and Kili.  They would still have their mother and their cousins.  They might be princes but that was okay, as long as they were together.

"Hey, Fee?" Kili reached out and touched Fili's hand.

"Yeah?" Fili laced their fingers together.

"We'll be together, won't we?"

"Of course we will," Fili gave a gentle squeeze.  "Always."

"Even when you're King of Erebor?"

"Especially when I'm King of Erebor."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said that Fili and Kili were in their 60s and the quest doesn't happen until Kili is 77 and Fili is 82. It's my headcanon that Thorin had been planning the quest ever since he left Erebor, but was continually waiting for the signs that it was time. Those portents that Oin reads.
> 
> So Fili and Kili grew up knowing that someday, Thorin would reclaim the mountain and they would move to Erebor and truly be the princes they were meant to be.


	5. Chapter 5

They were in the trees when they heard it.  A low growl, deep and guttural.  Kili, who had dragged Fili up the tree, pointed down at a small crevice of rocks.  Fili swallowed thickly at what he saw.

Two orcs on wargs were walking through the rocks, talking to each other in that weird language of theirs.  They had to be scouts.  Orcs never ventured this close to Ered Luin.  Fili gave Kili a worried glance.  If an orc patrol came this close to the mountain, then there's no telling if an entire orc legion would be here on the morrow.

Kili, his brown eyes narrowed, lifted his bow and pulled an arrow from his quiver.  Fili grabbed Kili's arm, shaking his head frantically.  He leaned forward until his lips were brushing Kili's ear.

"If you kill them then more will come," Fili breathed.  "They're scouts.  If they don't report back someone will get suspicious and then we'll have a war on our hands."

Kili stared at Fili.  "What if they find our camp?"

"We'll make a new one," Fili sighed.

They watched as the two scouts said something, then urged their wargs away from the mountain.  Only when the sounds of their guttural speak left did the two let themselves take a deep breath and collapse on the branches.

"I could have gotten them both," Kili muttered, messing with the end of his arrow.

"Then you would have brought an entire army on our heads."

"You can't know that."

Fili plucked a leaf from the tree and shredded it between his fingers.  "Yes I can."

"How?"

"Because it's what'll happen if Mister Dwalin never came back from a scout," Fili threw the shredded leaf into the air.  "Uncle would put on his best King Face and send out more scouts to find him.  If Mister Dwalin were dead then we would find the cause of death and proceed to exterminate them."

"How do you know that?" Kili asked, putting his arrow back into the quiver.

"Isn't that the job of a king?" Fili laughed humorlessly.

"Hey, hey," Kili shifted until he was sitting on the same branch as Fili.  He took Fili's hands in his, "I'm sorry, alright?  I didn't mean to remind you of that."

"I know you didn't," Fili sighed.  "It's just... it's a lot, you know?"

"We came out here to enjoy ourselves," Kili tightened his grip on Fili's hands.  "Didn't we?"

"Of course we did," Fili grinned.

They jumped from the tree and raced up a nearby hill.  Fili had no idea where they were, he couldn't bring himself to care much.  He and Kili ran through the forest, throwing pine cones at each other and racing up trees and down rocky slopes.  They chased down birds, ran after squirrels, and got into one very unfortunate incident with a very territorial badger.  They saw little deer in small herds and foxes with their kits.  Then they came across a huge, grassy field, filled with wild flowers.  The grass came up to their waist and they chased each other through it.

Fili, distracted by the sight of an eagle flying above them, had no warning when Kili grabbed him by the waist and threw him onto the ground.

"Gotcha!" Kili crowed, planting himself on Fili's chest.

Kili looked so proud of himself for having thrown down his big brother that Fili laughed.  He reached up and tucked stray hairs behind Kili's ears.  They were completely hidden by the grass.  Unless someone walked right over them, they would never be found.  So he pulled down Kili's face and pressed a strong kiss on his lips.

"I love you, brother," Fili said.

"And I love you," Kili grinned, leaving a light kiss on Fili's nose as he stood up.  "But I think the sun is setting.  Perhaps we should head back to camp?"

"If you can find it," Fili chuckled, allowing Kili to pull him up.

"Of course I can," Kili slung his arm over Fili's shoulder.

Fili laughed again.  He always seemed to laugh around Kili.  It was nice, to laugh and let himself loose.  To be free and young with his brother at his side.


	6. Chapter 6

Fili was eating the stew slowly.  Once they had gotten back to their camp, night soon fell.  Kili managed to round up a few quails for dinner and Fili made them a hearty stew.  He tossed the empty bowls into the empty pot and resolved to clean them in the morning.  Not now.  Not with Kili sprawled out next to him staring up at the dark sky together.

"Hey, Fili?" Kili whispered across the silence.

"Yeah?"

"I might have tried to make you something," Kili fidgeted.

Fili couldn't help but snort at that.  Kili had a great many skills, but crafting wasn't one of them.  He was as out of place in a forge as a fish out of water.

"Don't laugh!"

Fili glanced over and saw that Kili was pouting.

"I'm not laughing," Fili said, even as a giggle escaped his chest.

"Suppose I don't give it to you then?" Kili sat up and turned away.

"No, no," Fili rolled onto his stomach.  "C'mon, Kee.  I want to see it."

Kili turned slowly.  "Promise me you won't laugh."

"I promise," Fili said.

Kili held out his hand and dropped something heavy and silver into Fili's hands.  It was a thick silver ring with an orange gemstone set into it.  A citrine.  Along the edges of the ring were khuzdul runes that spoke of peace, prosperity, and strength.

"Kee," Fili whispered, sliding the ring onto his index finger.  "What's this for?"

"Yanno," Kili shrugged.  "You're gonna be king someday, right?  I thought... well... I thought you'd need some kingly jewelry."

Fili surged up and engulfed his little brother into a bone-crushing hug.

"It's perfect."

Kili hugged back just as tight.

"Though," Fili pulled back, "a bit ironic."

"What, why?" Kili demanded.

"I might have made you something as well," Fili flushed, pulling out the silver circlet from his bag.

Kili's eyes went wide at the sight.  The perfect silver finish, the platinum shining like moonlight, and the large opal in the center.

"What's this for then?"

"You'll be a prince," Fili placed it on Kili's head.  "And a prince has to look, well, princely."

Kili grinned and pushed Fili back onto the ground, tucking himself under his brother's arm.

"I don't want to go back," Fili said, running his hand through Kili's hair.  "I don't want to go back and be a prince."

"We don't have to," Kili muttered, tapping on Fili's chest.  "We could leave, tomorrow.  Travel to the Iron Hills or some human settlement.  Buy a forge where you could make all the trinkets you please and we would be just Fili and Kili."

That sounded marvelous and tempting.  Fili could practically see it.  It would be so easy.  He and Kili could run away and never look back.  Fili could be the toymaker he'd always wanted to be and he wouldn't have the weight of a lost kingdom on his shoulders.  Kili would follow him to the ends of the world too.  If Fili wanted to leave, he only had to say the words, and Kili would be by his side the entire way.

"We can't," Fili sighed.  "Mother would be terribly disappointed that we left without her."

"It's still an option," Kili said.  "Maybe in a few years?  It would be a good idea, don't you think?  A chance for us to grow up."

"I thought you didn't want to grow up," Fili smirked.

"I don't want to grow up without you," Kili corrected.

"Maybe someday we'll run off," Fili said.  "Just not tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."


End file.
